It is reported that the young Vladimir Putin was described by his KGB trainers as having “a reduced sense of danger.” It is hard to know if this is a genuine verbatim quote from his mentors alarmed at the apparent reckless potential of the young Soviet spy or if it has been retro-fitted into his biography by modern-day Kremlin spin doctors to reinforce the image of President Putin as the hard man of international politics.

Either way, it—usefully for the Russian leadership—implies a character that is cut from a different cloth than his adversaries in the West and one not to be underestimated when it comes to the brutal business of bringing Ukraine back into the fold.

What is apparent from the drama over Ukraine is how little U.S. and European leaders seem to have a clear sense of President Putin. Is he a master tactician with a powerful determination to restore Russian power and pride or is he more a superb improviser with deft crisis management skills? He evidently enjoys and excels at this type of raw knuckle politics but beyond the nationalist rhetoric does he have a coherent plan to fulfil a restoration of Russia’s status? And how far will he go to in defending what he sees as the legitimate right of Russia to defend its interests? [Read more…]

Dawn Smith, Managing Director, South-east Asia, AnnaPurna Consulting

I walked past Paul, the French bakery, in Jakarta this past week and noted that at 5pm, it was packed to the gills with well-off Indonesians enjoying themselves. Granted, this was arguably Jakarta’s most upscale mall (a property owned by a notorious businessman), but it is emblematic of how Southeast Asia’s emerging economies are proving fertile ground for Western consumer brands.  [Read more…]

Earlier this week, I watched American television news break the story of the Iranian nuclear agreement. A few hours and a transatlantic flight later and I watched the same story reported in the British media. I had to stop and check that I was watching the same events. In the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry was alone in bestriding the globe bringing the possibility of peace in the Middle East a step nearer; only his lack of a mask and cape denying him full superhero status.  [Read more…]

In an idle moment this morning, I was browsing the sale particulars for the Isle of Wiay, a deserted island in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Pretty soon I was making mental plans of how I would restore the dilapidated croft, build a jetty and where I would position the wind turbine to avoid spoiling the extraordinary contours of the landscape.

This is what happens after a week in Shanghai. It is not just the scale of Shanghai that is overwhelming; it is the knowledge that this city is now just one of many mega-cities that have sprung up right across China. Just thinking about how this densely populated corner of this massive city is replicated across this vast land is exhausting and makes a depopulated island perched in the Atlantic on the edge of the European land mass seem quite alluring.

Each time I come here I am staggered by the sheer enormity of what it must take to run this country particularly because the stakes are so high. Keeping the Chinese economy growing, making major structural adjustments and meeting the material aspirations of the population is not just a domestic political imperative for the Chinese Communist Party. We all now depend on Chinese success given the extent to which China has become such an integrated and vital component of the global economy. [Read more…]